Business Entry
Get Found Locally
Google Business Profile, reviews and a website that brings enquiries, for UK local service businesses.
In development
Course 09 · Run the business
In developmentPricing, Quoting and Cash Flow for Service Businesses
Know what every job really costs you, quote it properly, get paid on time, and see a cash shortfall weeks before it arrives.
Overview
Cost every job, quote it properly, get paid on time and see cash shortfalls weeks before they arrive.
Before
“Prices were set years ago, quotes go out slowly and are never followed up, invoices are chased when you remember, and tax bills arrive as surprises.”
After
“Every job type has a costed price with a known margin, quotes follow a template and a follow-up schedule, and a 13-week forecast with tax and VAT in it is updated weekly.”
What this course is about
Three spreadsheets and three habits: a job costing sheet, a quote template with a follow-up routine, and a rolling 13-week cash forecast reviewed every Monday. Price from your costs, quote as a process, and forecast 13 weeks ahead.
You’re busy, the work is good, and there still isn’t much left at the end of the month. Prices were set years ago. Quotes go out late and nobody follows them up. Business customers pay when they feel like it. The VAT quarter and the January tax bill turn up as surprises. None of that is about working harder.
Who it is for
Owners of UK service businesses that have been trading for six months or more, typically one to ten people: trades, repair and IT support, cleaning, maintenance, consultancy and bookkeeping, selling to consumers, businesses or both. It assumes you are already registered and invoicing; starting and structuring a business is covered in Going Self-Employed in the UK.
How it is taught
Six modules and 25 lessons of self-paced video, with a spreadsheet toolkit covering cost rate, job costing, profitability, recurring pricing, a late payment calculator, the 13-week forecast, a subscriptions audit and a year-end review, plus templates for quotes, price rises and chasing. Every worked figure is illustrative and labelled as such, and UK law is applied to real situations: a deposit, a business client at 60 days, a consumer who cancels.
Where AI helps is taught honestly: drafting quotes from job notes, categorising bank exports and drafting chase emails. The prices, the decision to charge interest and the forecast judgement stay with you. The legal and tax lessons are to be reviewed by a qualified accountant and solicitor before recording; this is not financial or legal advice, and no professional certification is claimed.
Tools covered
- Excel
- Google Sheets
- LibreOffice
Outcomes
What you will be able to do.
- Calculate your cost-to-business hourly rate, including overheads and non-billable time.
- Cost a job line by line (labour, materials, travel, subcontract, contingency, margin) and state its margin.
- Convert correctly between mark-up and margin.
- Choose a pricing model per service (hourly, fixed, package, recurring) with reasons.
- Write a quote that states scope, exclusions, validity, payment terms and deposit, and satisfies consumer law where it applies.
- Run a follow-up routine and a win/loss log, and read your quote conversion rate.
- Apply deposits and payment terms, including their VAT timing, and a four-step chase sequence.
- Calculate statutory interest and fixed compensation on a late business invoice.
- Build and maintain a 13-week cash-flow forecast that includes tax and VAT.
- Complete a subscriptions audit and a year-end review, and set three pricing or cash actions.
What you leave with
- 01 Your cost rate, charge rate and three costed job types, with a profitability ranking
- 02 A pricing model for each service, a minimum charge, a package set and a recurring offer
- 03 A quote template, qualifying questions, a follow-up schedule and a live quote log
- 04 A deposit rule, a payment terms block and chase templates, with a late payment interest calculator
- 05 A live 13-week cash forecast with a minimum cash line, tax and VAT dates and a gap plan
- 06 A completed subscriptions audit, a diarised year-end review and a one-page monthly money dashboard
Curriculum
6 modules, 25 lessons.
Every module ends with a practical output on your own business. Open a module to see its lessons.
-
01 Know your numbers
Find out what an hour and a job actually cost before deciding what to charge. Covers your cost-to-business rate, costing a job line by line, and why mark-up is not margin.
- 1.1 Your cost-to-business hourly rate
- 1.2 Costing a job line by line
- 1.3 Mark-up is not margin
- 1.4 Which jobs actually make money
Practical output Your cost rate, charge rate, three costed job types, a margin and mark-up rule, and a profitability ranking.
-
02 Choose how you charge
Match the pricing model to the work and the customer: hourly, day rate, fixed price, packages or recurring plans. Includes how to raise your prices calmly.
- 2.1 Hourly, day rate or fixed price
- 2.2 Packages, minimum charges and call-out fees
- 2.3 Recurring pricing: maintenance plans, retainers and subscriptions
- 2.4 Raising your prices
Practical output A pricing model per service, a minimum charge, one package set, one recurring offer and a price increase notice.
-
03 Quote like it's a process
Turn enquiries into written quotes quickly and follow every one up. Covers what the law makes binding, what a good quote contains, and where AI can help draft quotes safely.
- 3.1 Estimates, quotes and what the law makes binding
- 3.2 Anatomy of a good quote
- 3.3 Speed, qualifying and site visits
- 3.4 Follow-up and the win/loss log
- 3.5 Using AI in quoting, safely
Practical output A quote template, qualifying questions, a site-visit rule, a follow-up schedule, a live quote log and an AI scope prompt.
-
04 Get paid
Set terms that bring money in on time, and a legal, polite way to chase it. Includes deposits, stage payments and UK late payment law for business customers.
- 4.1 Deposits and stage payments
- 4.2 Payment terms and making it easy to pay
- 4.3 The chase sequence
- 4.4 UK late payment law for business customers
Practical output A deposit rule, a payment terms block, chase templates loaded and the interest calculator ready.
-
05 Forecast your cash
See shortfalls early enough to act. You build a rolling 13-week cash-flow forecast with tax and VAT in it, and a plan for when it shows a gap.
- 5.1 Profit is not cash
- 5.2 Build a 13-week cash-flow forecast
- 5.3 Putting tax and VAT into the forecast
- 5.4 When the forecast shows a gap
- 5.5 Using AI on your bank data, carefully
Practical output A live 13-week forecast with a minimum cash line, all tax and VAT dates, and a gap plan.
-
06 Review and tidy up
Cut waste and set next year's prices from evidence, with a subscriptions audit, a year-end review and a one-page monthly dashboard.
- 6.1 The subscriptions audit
- 6.2 The year-end review
- 6.3 Your one-page monthly money dashboard
Practical output Subscriptions audit done, year-end review diarised and monthly money dashboard live.
Fit
Who it is for.
Owners of UK service businesses with 1 to 10 people that have been trading for at least six months.
You will get most from it if
- You are trading and invoicing.
- Access to 6 to 12 months of bank transactions and invoices.
- Comfortable with a spreadsheet. Course 07 (Going Self-Employed in the UK) is helpful but not required.
It is not for
- People who have not started trading yet. Take Going Self-Employed in the UK first.
- Businesses selling mainly physical products.
- Anyone wanting bookkeeping or tax-return mechanics. That is Course 07 and your accountant.
- Anyone wanting legal action taken on a specific debt. The course explains the law and points to solicitors and the Small Business Commissioner.
- Anyone looking for pricing psychology tricks, fake scarcity or industry price lists. You build prices from your own costs.
- Anyone wanting borrowing or finance-product recommendations.
Questions
Before you ask.
Do I need accounting software?
No, but you will need a bank export and your invoice list. The spreadsheets work in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice.
Is this financial or legal advice?
No. It explains methods and the law in general. Take advice on your own disputes and tax. Admir is a practitioner, not an accountant or lawyer.
Does late payment law apply to my household customers?
No. The statutory interest rules apply between businesses. The course covers consumer terms separately.
Will it be updated when the new late payment law arrives?
Yes. The late payment lesson is updated when the law changes, free for 12 months.
I haven't started trading yet. Is this for me?
Not yet. The course assumes you are registered and invoicing. Going Self-Employed in the UK covers starting and structuring the business.
Interested in more than one? Choose several courses on one form.
Where this leads
More from “Run the business”.
- Business Core
Going Self-Employed in the UK
The first-year playbook: structure, registration, tax, records, insurance, a floor price and written terms, in the order you need them.
In development - Business Core
Start and Run a Computer Repair and IT Support Business
The business around the fix: intake, diagnosis, pricing, customer data, e-waste and support contracts, for UK technicians going independent.
In development